Midland News Association's Express and Star website saw the biggest
increase in average monthly traffic for the second half of 2011
across all audited regional newspaper websites, according to the
Audit Bureau of Circulation.

The latest results for July to December 2011, published today, show
the website, which at the time had a paywall in front of some of
its content, recorded a 35.6 per cent rise in average monthly
traffic compared to the same period in 2010.

A breakdown of the figures shows its best month for traffic in the
second half of the year was August, when it recorded 970,296 – the
same month that riots broke out in the streets of Birmingham and
Wolverhampton, having started in London.

Throughout the entire audited period MNA's Shropshire Star website
also had a partial paywall in place, and still saw a 26.5 per cent
rise in monthly traffic year-on-year. The sites dropped charging
for online content
in January, nine months after launch.

Acting head of digital at MNA Will Beavis said: "The editorial
team’s superb round the clock coverage of the Midlands riots made
the Express & Star an essential destination for online readers
but our broader digital strategy has ensured that a compelling
product is delivered to the growing audience.

"Online content is enriched with video, picture galleries and other
interactive elements to increase repeat visits to
Expressandstar.com and sister title Shropshirestar.com throughout
the year."

Looking across the regional publishers' portfolios, the Midland
News Association also recorded the biggest increase year-on-year
for daily browsers, with a 29.1 per cent rise to 59,640. It also
saw the second highest rise for monthly traffic with a 31.1 per
cent increase.

Iliffe News and Media recorded the biggest hike in average unique
monthly browsers of 32.6 per cent, taking the network to an average
of 792,586 unique browsers.

A breakdown of the figures shows that the highest traffic month for
the network was November, when it recorded 824,674 unique
browsers.

On average the network saw 44,942 daily unique browsers, a 28.8 per
cent rise on the same period in 2010.

Iliffe News and Media's digital network, which includes the
Cambridge News website, also saw the biggest increase in traffic
when compared to the first six months of 2011, with a 14.3 per cent
rise in daily traffic and 18.6 per cent increase in average monthly
browsers.

Trinity Mirror's regional network stayed top of the list today,
with the highest average monthly traffic, recording more than 9
million unique browsers on average. The highest recorded figure for
the network was made in August when it reached more than 10 million
(10,179,854).

Overall the publishing digital networks together saw a year-on-year
increase in monthly traffic of 14.33 per cent, and a rise in daily
traffic of 12.55 per cent.

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